WWUTT 2537 Baptized By the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5)

Baptism with the Holy Spirit and the Apostolic Witness

Jesus tells his disciples that you are going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now, there was a specific kind of baptism that the apostles received, but all of us who are in Christ Jesus are baptized by the Spirit, when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky, and greetings all. We come back again to our study in the book of Acts. I just started yesterday with an introduction and an overview to this book. Let's get to our exposition today.

I want to read once again the greeting that Luke gives to Theophilus, the words that Jesus shares with his disciples, and then departing from them and ascending back to the Father. Here's Acts 1 verses 1 -11, hear the word of the Lord.

The first account, O Theophilus, I composed about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over forty days, and speaking about the things concerning the kingdom of God, and gathering them together.

He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, you heard of from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now.

So when they had come together, they were asking him, saying, Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel? But he said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth.

And after he had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.

And they also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven.

And so this is the introduction to Acts, which sets the stage for everything else we're going to be reading about in this book. Jesus says to his disciples, You will be my witnesses. And then we see how they will be witnesses for Christ in sharing the gospel to the world, doing so in the power of the Holy Spirit and all the amazing things that we're going to be reading about as we go through Acts.

But let's come back to this greeting that Paul gives to Theophilus. And I also want to look at what Jesus said to his disciples and the promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What kind of baptism is this that we read about in verse five?

So coming back to verse one, Luke says, the first account, O Theophilus, I composed about all that Jesus began to do and teach. Now this is all one sentence that goes through verse three, but that's the first line that we have in verse one.

And this tells us right away, we're reading a sequel. In the first account, I told you this, and now here's what I'm going to be writing for you in this next letter. It is written as kind of a letter.

Now we don't know who Theophilus was. He's never mentioned anywhere else in the Bible except the greeting to Luke and the greeting to Acts. I like the theory that Theophilus could have been someone of great importance, of high stature, especially with the reverent way that Luke addresses him, O Theophilus, and somebody not only of influence, but of great wealth and could have therefore been hosting a church in his home.

We see that elsewhere in the New Testament. For example, we're going to get to Acts chapter 16 and read about a woman named Lydia. And she was a matriarch who sold fine purple fabric. Now that tells us she was very good at her craft and that she also made a lot of money because purple fabric was the most expensive fabric.

It was people of wealth and prestige who would own purple fabrics. And so the church that met in Philippi gathered in her home. She probably had a residence that was large enough to host a church in her home.

We also read about Philemon who owned slaves. Remember that Paul writes to Philemon in the letter to Philemon telling him to receive his slave Onesimus as a brother. So since Philemon has slaves, he obviously is somebody of wealth.

And it's possible that the church that met either in Colossae or in Laodicea met in the home of Philemon. So we've seen evidence of this elsewhere in the New Testament. It could have been the case with Theophilus as well, a man of influence and of wealth who hosted a church in his home, which makes a lot of sense then why Luke would write to him an account of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That would be very beneficial to the church that met in the home of Theophilus, who also may have had access to scribes who could have copied the gospel and therefore sent copies of it out to other churches.

So that's a good theory. I like that idea of Theophilus being this guy of influence, man of wealth, had a church in his home, and now Luke is writing to him about those things that the apostles have done in sharing the gospel to the world.

We have the acts of Jesus in Luke and the acts of the apostles in the book of Acts. And it could have been that in that first year that Paul was under house arrest in Rome, that's the way that we end the book of Acts.

Luke would have written the gospel at that point. And then maybe in the second year, he writes Acts. So both of these going to Theophilus being very beneficial, not just to the saints that gathered in his home, but has been beneficial to the saints ever since.

We're reading it now. So then Luke goes on from there to verse two, until the day, I talked about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven and after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen.

We read a little bit about Jesus' ascent into heaven at the end of Luke. Luke comes back to it again here, but gives a little bit more detail into the words that Jesus shared with his disciples immediately before leaving them.

And he speaks to them by the Holy Spirit. Remember that Jesus himself had the Holy Spirit throughout his time on earth. From the time of his baptism, it was witnessed by other people that the Holy Spirit had descended upon him.

And then he goes up by the Spirit into the wilderness. We read about in Matthew chapter three, about his baptism, Matthew four, about his going into the wilderness to be tempted and the Spirit being with him even in the midst of.

That.

When we were in Luke's gospel, we read about Jesus going into the synagogue and reading from Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and saying to the people there that were present, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

So the Holy Spirit was upon Christ and he is going to give the power of the Spirit to his apostles as well. Of course, Jesus is the son of God. The Holy Spirit is God. And that same God who has been with the son of God in his earthly ministry is the very God who will be with the disciples as they go out fulfilling what it is that Jesus is commissioning them to do.

It's not under their own power that they're going to accomplish this, but by the power of God. So these are the apostles that he had chosen. That's the end of verse two. Verse three, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs.

We read about some of that also at the end of Luke. And we know from other accounts that there were hundreds of witnesses, possibly even over a thousand witnesses that saw Jesus alive in how long of a period of time?

Between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven, Luke says, appearing to them over 40 days and speaking about the things concerning the kingdom of God. In first Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle Paul talks about how there was an occasion in which the risen Christ appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time.

Now, a lot of times we get caught up with that number. We focus on just the fact that Jesus had appeared to over 500 brothers. But missing that, the reason why Luke concludes that is because it was to over 500 brothers at one time.

So he had appeared to all the disciples, had probably appeared to dozens and dozens more, but there was at least one occasion where over 500 people, 500 brothers were gathered in one place and Jesus appeared to them.

And Paul testifies of them so that the Corinthians would know there are all kinds of eyewitnesses still alive to this day that you can go to and find out from them. They saw with their own eyes, Jesus resurrected from the dead.

And he even taught in a period of over a month between that time of his resurrection to the time of his ascension to heaven, appearing to them for over 40 days. And what did he teach about? Speaking about the things concerning the kingdom of God.

Now we read a little bit of that at the end of Luke, and then we're going to read more about that as we go through Acts. And we even read about those things in the other epistles that we have in the New Testament.

So it's not left mysteriously to us about all the things that Jesus talked about, whatever we read in the New Testament. These also would have been things that Jesus taught to his disciples. And then in verse four, gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard of from me.

For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. So here's what I want to consider for the rest of this lesson here. What is this baptism that Jesus is talking about with his disciples?

You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. Now all of us who are in Christ Jesus, all of us who believe in Jesus, we've all been baptized with the Holy Spirit. That cleansing of our hearts has come upon us.

The waters of regeneration that we read about in Titus chapter three, or the washing of regeneration that Paul mentions in Ephesians chapter five, or even that Jesus talks about with Nicodemus in John chapter three, unless you are born of water and the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Jesus was not talking about water baptism there, as many people assume Jesus was referring to, but rather the washing that comes by the Holy Spirit, that regenerating work of the.

Heart.

It is prophesied about in Ezekiel chapter 36. It's what we all receive when we come to faith in Jesus Christ. We have been washed by his spirit. That has happened first, that washing, that cleansing of the spirit has happened even as we have put our faith in Jesus.

And so we have all received this baptism. And whenever we are baptized in water, outwardly, we are testifying to what has happened inwardly. We've already been baptized by his spirit. And so then our testimony in our water baptism is that I've been buried with Christ in my.

Sins.

My sins are washed away and now I'm risen to walk in newness of life with Christ. So our water baptism becomes a testimony of the spiritual baptism that we've all received by the Holy Spirit. Now I say that, but that's not the kind of baptism that we're talking about here in Acts 1 .5.

There is a very unique kind of baptism by the Holy Spirit that Jesus is giving to these apostles that not every person receives. Yes, the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles. In fact, we read about it in John happening before Jesus, even before we get to this point where they're having this conversation on the Mount of Olives.

Jesus is with his disciples in the rooms and breathes upon them and says for them to receive the Holy Spirit. So they've been given the Holy Spirit then. This baptism of the Holy Spirit is different. This is a baptism that will come with great power and it will be demonstrated in the miraculous acts and works that they will do after receiving that Holy Spirit.

We see that at the beginning of the book of Acts in Acts 2. And this is a unique gifting that is given to the apostles and it's not to every single Christian. We all receive the Holy Spirit. So don't hear me saying that we have not been baptized with power.

We have been. The power, that regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that every believer already has. You have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within you. And it is the same Holy Spirit that even worked in the lives of the apostles during what we're reading about in the book of Acts.

But there is still a unique gifting of the Spirit that's given to the apostles that we don't all receive. There are many people out there who will claim that they have the same anointing of the Holy Spirit that the apostles were given.

I'm going to agree with you to the extent that we all have the Holy Spirit, all of us who are followers of Jesus Christ. But if what they're talking about is that I also have the power to raise the dead, no, you've not been given the power of the Spirit in that way.

The apostle Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 12, 12, the signs of apostleship were clearly demonstrated among you so that people would know who the apostles were, who were the ones that Christ had chosen.

Again, back to Acts 1 -2, these are the apostles whom he had chosen. Who were they? Who were the ones that were commissioned to go out with the word of Christ? And the word that they spoke was every bit as authoritative as the word of Christ itself, because it was the word of Christ that had been given to them.

Who were the men that were commissioned with that authority? And they're the ones who demonstrated by that power the signs of apostleship. So this is the kind of baptism of the Holy Spirit that they are going to receive.

That's uniquely what Jesus is talking about with this particular kind of baptism. Now, he also distinguishes between the baptism of John and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. John baptized with water, Jesus says, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now.

When you go back to Matthew chapter 3 and you read about the witness of John the Baptist prior to the coming of Christ, he's in the wilderness, he's proclaiming, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet saying, the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now, when John the Baptist rebukes the Pharisees, he says to them, as for me, this is Matthew 3, 11, as for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove his sandals.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Now, I've heard some people say that this is the same baptism. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the baptism of fire, because as we read about in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles, he comes with tongues of fire upon them.

So therefore, it's just the same baptism spoken about in a different way. It's the baptism of the Holy Spirit and with fire. But John the Baptist goes on to show exactly what he means by fire. When you go on to verse 12, he says, his winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor, and he will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

So we're talking about two different baptisms there. There's the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and there's the baptism of fire. Every Christian who has come to faith in Jesus Christ has been baptized by the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit.

Every unbeliever, those who do not come to faith in Jesus, they are baptized by fire, the fire of judgment that Christ will pour out upon all who did not believe in him. So John the Baptist is giving a testimony here that everybody gets baptized.

You're either going to be baptized by the Holy Spirit, and then you will demonstrate the genuineness of that baptism through your water baptism, or you will be baptized with fire, the judgment fire that Christ will pour out on all the unbelieving.

So here, John says, Jesus is going to baptize with the Holy Spirit. That is not a baptism of fire. So even as Jesus is talking here with the disciples, he only mentions the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. It will actually be 10 days later, because this is 40 days after his resurrection, and Pentecost comes 50 days after Passover.

So that's when the baptism of the Holy Spirit comes. When we get to Acts 2, it'll be 10 days after the events that we're reading about here. But this is still a baptism that's different than water baptism.

John baptized with water. You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now, when were the apostles baptized with water? Have you ever wondered that? Have you ever asked that question before? We know that they were baptized with water because they were baptized at John's baptism.

We'll talk about this a little bit more tomorrow, but one of the qualifications for being one of the 12 apostles was that they had to be in Jesus' ministry, or at least witnesses to his ministry, from the time of his baptism to the time of his ascension into heaven.

So all of the apostles would have been there at the time that Jesus was baptized, and this was the baptism of John. So John baptized with water, Jesus was baptized with water, and all of the disciples would have received John's baptism.

But the baptism that is received by Christ is different than John's baptism, and we're going to see that distinction made even later on in Acts. Remember when the apostle Paul comes upon those disciples in Ephesus in Acts 19, and he says, have you received the Holy Spirit?

And they said, well, we didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit. And Paul asked them, into what then were you baptized? And they said into John's baptism, but then Paul gives them the baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.

And so then they receive the Holy Spirit, and they begin speaking in tongues and prophesying. There in Acts 19, they become disciples with Paul and go out through Ephesus and the surrounding region, sharing the gospel.

So there we see a difference between the baptism that John did and the baptism into Christ. So at what point did the apostles receive that? It probably was not by Jesus. I've heard some make this argument before that Jesus was the one who baptized them.

But John 4, 2 tells us that Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were. And because John the Baptist says, I baptize with water, but he doesn't. He baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I don't think that Jesus even baptized his own apostles.

When they receive a water baptism in the name of Jesus, it was likely that they would have baptized each other. And we don't see anywhere in the Bible where it explicitly says to us when and where this would have taken place.

But because there is such a distinction between John's baptism and being baptized in Christ, it's logical to believe that they were baptized in water in the name of Jesus sometime in that 40 days, likely.

Or it could have been, I mean, it could have even been before that. It could have been while John the Baptist ministry was finishing up and Jesus was beginning because they're baptizing in the name of Jesus in John 4.

So it could have been there. But the apostles baptize each other, not that Jesus gives them water baptism, because the baptism that Jesus gives is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There's quite an obvious distinction made about that with regards to what John testifies in Matthew 3 and what we have here in Acts chapter 1.

John baptized with water, Jesus said, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. I know that some have made the argument, too, that the apostles receive just the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

They were baptized by John with water, but now they're receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And maybe, but I find it unlikely. I think it's more likely that they were baptized in the name of Jesus, but that would have happened before the events that we're even reading about here in Acts chapters 1 and 2.

So this baptism that they receive of the Holy Spirit is going to be a baptism with power. And we're going to see that power demonstrated even as we get into chapter 2 with the speaking of tongues at Pentecost, with the powerful preaching that Peter gives.

And then, of course, the authentication through other miracles that the apostles will be doing as they continue this witness in Jerusalem through these first five or so chapters in the book of Acts. But I repeat once again that we all receive a baptism of the Spirit, and it is incumbent upon each and every one of us that we live according to that baptism, turning away from.

Sin.

If we've been cleansed of sin, walk in it no longer, but that we would walk in righteousness with Christ. We have been clothed in his righteousness, cleansed by his Spirit, clothed in white robes, that we would live according to the command of Christ in all that we say and do.

So put to death what is earthly in you and walk in the righteousness that you have been given in Jesus name. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read here, and I pray that this does commission to us to turn from sin and to walk in the light of your truth, and that we would also be witnesses testifying to the good news of the gospel that we heard, putting our faith in Jesus Christ and therefore being saved, that we would share this message with others so that they too may put their trust in Christ and come to faith and live.

Thank you for the gift of your Spirit that has been given to us, and give us the conviction to turn from sin and walk in righteousness in Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.